Just Jennifer

Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross (William Morrow, April 2014)

If you take half a million dollars from a dead man who has probably stolen the money in the first place and no one would ever find out about it, is it okay? Especially if it is to help your autistic son get the proper care he needs?  Thirty-six-year-old Hillary Blum has just lost her job, can’t get her deadbeat husband to pay his back child support and has just witnessed a car run off the road late at night.  Hillary stops to help, realizes that the man is dead but that he has a satchel containing half a million dollars.  Knowing that this money will help her keep things afloat until she is able to get another job, Hillary gives into temptation thinking no one will ever find her.  Until the man who also witnessed the accident is murdered and Hillary realizes the money did not belong to the dead man but to someone else who will stop at nothing to get it back.  Hillary finds the dead man’s son, a cop from the part of Staten Island that was destroyed by Sandy and is still fighting to make a comeback, a man to whom a half a million dollars would also be a big help.  Suddenly, a decades old murder surfaces and things spin quickly out of control.  Everything to Lose is as fast paced thriller with not only a determined heroine, but a desperate one facing a moral dilemma.  All the seemingly desperate strands are woven together in this tightly knit narrative with strong characters and a well-written plot.